1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator for discharging cool air from a door by using an air curtain generating device, and more particularly to a refrigerator having a device for generating an air curtain for shutting off the opening of a cooling compartment when the door is opened and a door duct for supplying the cooling compartment with the cool air provided from the device when the door is closed.
2. Prior Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional refrigerator, which shows a refrigerator having a device for generating an air curtain for shutting off the opening of a cooling compartment. The refrigerator has, as shown in FIG. 1, a cabinet 10 forming a freezing compartment 21 and a fresh food compartment 22 which are partitioned from each other by a wall 27, and a freezing compartment door 24 and a fresh food compartment door 25 which open/close the freezing compartment 21 and fresh food compartment 22, respectively. The doors 24, 25 are hingedly mounted on the cabinet 10.
A compressor 23 is installed in a lower rear part of the cabinet 10, and an evaporator 29 is installed in a rear part of the freezing compartment 21 for generating cool air by evaporating refrigerant supplied from the compressor 23. A cooling fan 19 for blowing the cool air generated by the evaporator 29 is installed at the upper side of the evaporator 29 so as to supply the freezing compartment 21 and the fresh food compartment 22 with the cool air.
A device 20 for generating an air curtain is provided in the upper side of the fresh food compartment 22. The air curtain generating device 20 comprises a cool air duct 13 provided in the upper side of the fresh food compartment 22, and a blowing fan 11 for blowing the cool air from the evaporator 29 into the cool air duct 13. The cool air duct 13 is formed with a cool air discharge port 15 at one end thereof which is opened downward at the area adjacent to an opening of the fresh food compartment 22. The cool air blown into the cool air duct 13 is discharged downward, by which the air curtain for shutting off the opening of the fresh food compartment 22 is generated.
In the fresh food compartment 22, a sensor (not shown) for sensing the opening/closing of the fresh food compartment door 25 is provided, and the blowing fan 11 is controlled to operate only when the opening of the door 25 is sensed by the sensor. Thus, the air curtain is generated only when the door 25 is opened so as to prevent leakage of the cool air through the opening of the fresh food compartment 22 when the door 25 is opened.
A plurality of cool air ports 16, 18 are formed at the rear surfaces of the freezing compartment 21 and the fresh food compartment 22. When the door 25 is closed, the cool air from the evaporator 29 is blown by the cooling fan 19 so as to be supplied into the freezing compartment 21 and the fresh food compartment 22, and accordingly the foodstuffs stored in the freezing compartment 21 and the fresh food compartment 22 are frozen and refrigerated, respectively.
However, in such a conventional refrigerator, although the leakage of the cool air is prevented by the air curtain, since the cool air in the area adjacent to the door 25 comes in contact with exterior air when the door 25 is opened and leaks through a gap between the door 25 and the cabinet 10 when the door 25 is closed, there is a problem that the temperature of the fresh food compartment 22 in the area adjacent to the door 25 may fall in comparison with the temperature at the other areas in the fresh food compartment 22. Furthermore, according to the tendency for the refrigerator to become larger in size, since the distribution of temperature in each area in the fresh food compartment 22 may become more uneven, the foodstuffs stored in the fresh food compartment 22 may be over cooled or under cooled.